What If All the Blue States Had Election Laws Like Louisiana?

Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin talks about Saturday's election and how Louisiana's rules and laws could have prevented so much of the 2020 election controversies if they'd been in place in other states.

"Louisiana does not allow for any ballots to be counted simply because they are postmarked," Ardoin says, explaining the state's carved-in-stone deadline, "We count them if they are in by 4:30pm the day before the election.

Here's what the Secretary told KEEL about the state laws:

"Even if it is going through the mail...and it comes in after 4:30 it would not be counted. It will be challenged by the local board of elections supervisors, made up of the Clerk, the Registrar and a Republican member, a Democratic member and an appointee of the Governor and those five people make those decisions. It's done that way all across the state, no exemptions, no changes."

The Secretary then explains how not having hard and fast deadlines led to the major problems in other states in the most recent Presidential election. "Other states allow for (ballots) to be postmarked...days after, which I think is wrong.

"Election day is election day, not election week, not election month," he continues, "If it's in it gets counted if it's appropriately filled out. There are rules and regulations and laws that require that ballots be filled out properly and if they aren't, they are sent to the board."

Ardoin then emphasizes how the rules apply to every election on the state, no matter how big or how small. "Local folks make those decisions, it's bipartisan and we're very proud of our system."

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